I don't know enough about USB to serial converters to answer whether it will work. The bug in the speakup code is that it errors out after trying to "steal" the serial port a the adress 0x3f8. All my patch does is not error out. It prints a warning and continues. So whether the USB converter would work would depend (I think) upon wiether it allows speakup to write to the port at 0x3f8. That does seem unlikely. PS: You didn't ask but are you sure your system does not have a serial port on the motherboard? Many systems have a serial port header block on the mobo but not the physical port on the back of the machine. If that is the case, you can buy an adapter for under $10. The last 2 machines I've built were like that. One I actually drilled a D-shaped hole in the case to expose the adapter. On 02/11/14 10:35, Keith Wessel wrote: > This thread got my attention. > > I've been sadly speechless since moving to this new system that doesn't have > on-board serial ports, and my serial dectalk express is sitting here doing > nothing. I plan to set up software speech, but I really do miss boot-time > speech. > > If I get a USB to serial converter and build support into the kernel for it, > will I be able to use my serial Dectalk Express again once USB device > detection has completed? > > If so, will I need to apply John's hack/bug fix/work-around/whatever you > want to call it? > > Keith > > -----Original Message----- > From: Speakup [mailto:speakup-bounces at linux-speakup.org] On Behalf Of John > G. Heim > Sent: Monday, February 10, 2014 9:19 AM > To: tyler at tysdomain.com; Speakup is a screen review system for Linux. > Subject: Re: Attention John Heim, About your Custome Kernel? > > Well, it would probably be easier just to build a patched kernel. It's > really not that difficult to patch the kernel. At one time I put out just > the patch. I can probably do that yet today. Of course, you don't really > even need my patch. You can just comment out that one line of code. Right > now, I can't give the exact location of the line in question but it would > be in the archives. > > I'll try to put up a document on www.iavit.org (The International > Association of Visually Impaired Technologists) with details on patching the > code and a link to my custom 64-bit kernel. > > On 02/09/14 00:09, Littlefield, Tyler wrote: >> It won't actually run on a 32-bit system if it's built for 64 bits. If >> he provides the kernel's config, you may be able to toggle the 64-bit >> option on or off, but I can't guarantee success! >> HTH, >> On 2/9/2014 12:31 AM, Hart Larry wrote: >>> OK, I wanted to try John's later kernel, which might let me still run >>> a DecTalk U S B. But the immage is an amd64. Would their be a way of >>> converting to 32bit, or would it actually run? Thanks so much in advance. >>> Hart >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Speakup mailing list >>> Speakup at linux-speakup.org >>> http://linux-speakup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/speakup >> >> > > -- > --- > John G. Heim, 608-263-4189, jheim at math.wisc.edu > _______________________________________________ > Speakup mailing list > Speakup at linux-speakup.org > http://linux-speakup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/speakup > > _______________________________________________ > Speakup mailing list > Speakup at linux-speakup.org > http://linux-speakup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/speakup > -- --- John G. Heim, 608-263-4189, jheim at math.wisc.edu
